The currently used HDMI standard, HDMI 2.0 has been in place for more than 3 years now with support for HDMI and 4K resolution at 60 frames per second. However, the newly announced HDMI 2.1 officially unveiled at CES 2017 seems to have taken a huge leap over the current one.

Without even going into the nitty gritty of all the information revealed regarding HDMI 2.1, tech enthusiasts will be able to see that the new standard not only has support for higher resolutions now but also a better refresh rate.

The HDMI 2.1 standard will be able to display up to 8K resolution at 60Hz while 4K will see a bump to 120Hz as opposed to the 60Hz of 2.0 standard.

HDMI 2.1 will also bring with it Dynamic HDR which will automatically adjust the settings based on the game or movie which is being viewed on a capable display.

Robert Blanchard of Sony Electronics, president of the HDMI Forum, said in the press release:

This new release of the specification offers a broad range of advanced features for enhancing the consumer entertainment experience, as well as providing robust solutions to the commercial A/V sector.

To keep up with the new HDMI standard, better quality 48G cables will also be released which can transmit up to 48Gbps for uncompressed data stream as well as to make sure 8K60 with HDR doesn’t encounter any hindrance from the cable’s side.

The cable will also be backwards compatible so old HDMI standard devices will also be able to use it.

Launch of HDMI 2.1 will also be accompanied with a Game Mode VRR for TVs which will allow them to make use of variable refresh rates somewhat similar to FreeSync and Gsync, mainly for consoles, to prevent tearing and lag.

HDMI 2.1 is expected to launch in the second quarter of 2017 although mainstream availability might take some more time.